This invention relates to a method for opening textile fiber bales, particularly tightly pressed cotton bales, wherein the fibers are removed from the top side of the bales by opening devices such as spiked rollers or toothed discs. The opening elements, such as spikes or teeth project through a grate and bite into the bale. The grate comprises a plurality of parallel-spaced grate bars extending in the direction in which the opening device travels. The invention further relates to an apparatus for performing the method according to the invention.
In known bale opening arrangements of the above-outlined type the opening elements, as the opening device travels along the bales, leave furrows in the top face of the fiber bales, while in the zones of compression between the grate elements and the fiber bale unremoved material remains, constituting ridges between the furrows. Such ridges can be ablated only with difficulty, because the opening elements cannot, by direct contact, reach the ridges formed of the compressed material; rather, the material forming the ridges is torn out by being entrained by the fiber material engaged directly by the opening elements. Such ridges can be removed only with difficulty and very gradually only in several passes. This circumstance adversely affects the efficiency of the apparatus in a significant degree.